Delsin’s Inertia series are back. The floor focussed offshoot welcomes German DJ and producer Lennart Wiehe. Bringing groovy roughness and warm yet forceful driving techno finished with some kickdrum heavy beat pounders, it’s an effective pack of dancefloor goodness.
Collaborations is a new series curated by Artefakt on their own imprint De Stijl. Inviting friends and likeminded artists for extended studio improvisations crafting an EP based on live sessions. First guest is Claudio PRC, a close friend and familiar face in the deep techno scene. Both artists reside in Berlin and share a dedicated passion for atmospheric and immersive ambient and techno. Collaborations I features four jams combining the unmistakable strengths of both artists, resulting in a well varied pack of emotive techno with room for experiment.
Lost Trax pops up at Delsin once more. It’s their second EP with new material on Delsin after their Surface Treated EP from 2019. On Mind Over Matter, Lost Trax steps in the world of old school pre-nineties jackin’ Chigaco and Detroit sounds. Four tracks filled with razor sharp 303s, bubbling FM-basses, jacking drums and offworldy emotive melodies, making this an excellent pack for the late nights.
Versalife with the second installment of his Shape Shifter series on the Delsin electronic series. Fresh harbour city electro jams.
Delsin’s Cameron series, known for its deep and atmospheric techno, welcomes Italian DJ and producer Claudio PRC. Presenting three expertly crafted and compelling techno rides.
Long awaited reissue of Connective Zone’s Qwerty EP. Originally released in 2002 on Emoticon, the deep electronica sister label of Headspace Recordings. Connective Zone, aka Lincoln-based duo Graham Sims and Simon Button, have been making their unique brand of deep techno for many years. Warm strings, thick chords, multi-layered synth melodies and crisp beats are the order of the day, with influences coming from early Detroit techno and ‘artificial intelligence’ era UK electronics. All four tracks pack a soulful punch, drawing from the past but allowing their individual sound to shine through. Rhythmically they range from straight-up 4/4 beats to more syncopated patterns, and are sure to find favour with more adventurous DJs as well as home listeners.
Delsin welcomes Jayson Wynters into the fold for a four-track EP that embodies techno as a vibrant, expressive artform with the ability to uplift. On The Affect Heuristic, Wynters strides forth with an electrifying machine language, calling to mind the feverish, psychedelic tweaking and layering of visionaries like Dan Curtin and Lee Purkis (In Sync). Across four tracks, Wynters pivots between distinctly Motor City-indebted funk, springy electro-techno and vivid, immersive soundchasms.
VC-118A returns to Delsin to present his fourth album, Spiritual Machines. It marks an exciting shift in focus for Samuel van Dijk as his flagship project nears a decade skirting the deeper ends of techno and electro. Over the past two and half years, van Dijk forensically reviewed the key aspects of his production process as he dug down in search of the essence of the VC-118A sound. By creating his own complement of sample banks, software racks and devices, van Dijk was able to work with a hybridised analogue-digital system purely of his own making. Less in thrall to the strict rigours of techno and electro standards, Spiritual Machines’ 13 album tracks encompass more fluid shifts into abstract and downtempo, dub-inflected realms, without losing sight of the elements that have made VC-118A so compelling from the beginning. Burnished machine soul, aqueous atmospherics and immaculate drum programming abound, but in the mellow, enveloping sound world of Spiritual Machines you can hear van Dijk guiding his music into a broader form that sounds at once more assured and more inspired.
Dino Sabatini arrives on Delsin’s Mantis series with a charged, imposing statement of meditative techno. Sabatini has been at the forefront of the deep techno scene since the mid 00s, cultivating a sound with his own Outis Music which acknowledges the structures of club music while reaching beyond obvious drama and brute force, offering something more subliminal instead. On Mantis 06, Sabatini blurs the lines between organic and electronic percussion as he doubles down on steadfast rhythms executed with delicacy and impact in equal measure.
Steve Rachmad’s richly melodic strain of techno has resulted in a huge body of work he has been growing since the early 90s. His sound is the perfect distillation of machine soul – dubby atmospherics and crisp, danceable dynamics balanced in perfect unison. Amsterdam’s Delsin Records gathers together some of the Dutch techno figurehead’s most important, sought-after works in a new EP series, all remastered from the original DAT tapes from Steve’s archives. His flagship Sterac project is present with Asphyx EP, featuring four absolute classic Sterac works dating from 1995.
Nick Lapien and Robin Koek’s latest collaborative album, Days Bygone, helps launch Delsin’s Interstellar series as they continue to explore beyond the dancefloor trappings of conventional techno to create a body of work steeped in mystery. Although not totally devoid of percussion, Artefakt shift their focus away from dominant drums and lean on the keys and pads to map out the landscape each track traverses. Sometimes furtive and suggestive, elsewhere pearlescent and diffused across great expanses, it’s these striking, sublime formations which define the atmosphere Lapien and Koek have created – a textured, dynamic exercise in techno as internalized listening music.
Vril returns to Delsin with a cinematic ambient score. Backed with a remix pack of close friends featuring Voiski’s driving dub-techno, rattling breaks by His Master’s Voice and a thumping 808 electro take in collaboration with Marcel Dettmann.
From time to time I like to take a brief look at what our readers enjoyed the most and the end of the year is always a good time to do so. In order to do this I compile a top 3 of the most appreciated albums, compilations, mixes our readers liked in the last year.
As a cover for this year’s post I choose a map showing from where our visitors come and the first 10 places are the US, Germany, Romania, UK, Ukraine, The Netherlands, Spain, France, Russia and Italy.
Delsin presents two supplement EPs to the recently released retrospective compilations of Wladimir M. and Florence. This first Florence disc its a collection of rarities. The EP opens with Convextion’s remix of ‘The Vineyard’, never been released on vinyl before. Second track on side A is the original mix of ‘Exploration’ as featured on the very first Eevo Lute EP in 1991. Side B opens with Peter Ford aka Baby Ford’s remix of ‘The Vineyard’, originally released in 1996. The EP closes with the original instrumental version of ‘Disappointment’, to which the lyrics and vocals by Wladimir M. were added later on.
Delsin dives deeper in the Dutch techno archives once more by re-masterering, re-cutting and re-releasing Ballet Mechanique’s Embody EP. A keystone release containing four tracks of tough, yet emotive electro jams, sounding fresh till the date of today. Originally released in 1996 on Eevo Lute Muzique and definitely one of the highlights when it comes to pure futuristic techno soul. The Embody EP from Jeroen Borrenbergs aka Ballet Mechanique and Eevo’s in-house graphic designer at that time made his first public work on one of the most influential techno labels from the Netherlands.
For the first time Versalife appears on Delsin. Having released multiple albums and EPs as Conforce, the prolific Rotterdam based producer now brings a lush electro four-tracker to the Delsin electronic series. Over the course of four tracks he creates a warm and emotive playfield of flawless bassline drifters and atmospheric sound design.
Samuel van Dijk aka VC-118A returns to Delsin and gives us a taste of what’s cooking in his futuristic electro lab. On this fierce two-tracker ‘Crunch / Plonk’ the Dutch producer presents two rough cuts of his trademark machine sound. Three smoke-filled endless loops add up to the a-side for a taste of his forthcoming album early next year.
The latest installment in Delsin’s deep-diving Mantis series comes from Varuna. As a core fixture in the Basel, Switzerland-based amenthia crew, this secretive production collective have quietly issued compelling excursions into dense, immersion-chamber techno. Varuna gift Mantis three subtly sublime, long-form pulsations that evolve slowly but purposefully, drawing the ear and mind further into a place of intense meditation.
The third installment in the Delsin Mantis series comes from Dutch producer Konduku. The three tracks on this 12” are a masterclass in subtle soundsystem music, matching his intricate drum programming and enlightening ambient textures with the primal energy of early bleep and bass.
Essential CiM (aka Simon Walley) classic, originally released on Headspace Recordings in 1999. Now re-mastered and re-cut on Delsin Records. Crispy and soulful idm-techno in line with CiM’s Delsin debut Service Pack released later that year.
The Hipodrome Of Music 